1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video playback apparatus and method of presenting a video together with associated information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, video images of TV programs and movies can be played back by a variety of devices such as a personal computer, TV set, DVD player, and portable phone. A video is an aggregation of various kinds of medium information including video data displayed on a screen, voice and sound data, and text data called a closed caption which originally accompanies video for persons with hearing handicaps.
A system has recently been proposed, which adds information associated with a video to the video image and simultaneously presents them (e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3268545 and JP-A 2002-262268 [KOKAI]). This watching method is expected to be popular in the further as the quantity of video information increases steadily. That is, a user watches a video and simultaneously reads associated information, thereby efficiently acquiring information.
However, if associated information is presented together with a video, as in Japanese Patent No. 3268545 and JP-A 2002-262268 (KOKAI), it is difficult for the user to grasp all pieces of presented information because the amount of information presented at once is too large. Even if it is possible to acquire all pieces of presented information, the user must frequency move eyes between the video and associated information, and the load on him/her is heavy.
For example, when a video containing a large quantity of character information such as a character overlay is played back, and text information is simultaneously displayed on a side of the screen as associated information, the user is forced to read a lot of texts in a short time. Similarly, if associated information is displayed on a side of the screen while the contents of a video that is being played back are very quickly changing, the user overlooks the associated information at a high probability because it can hardly attract his/her attention.
To reduce the information amount, conventionally, video playback itself is paused and then resumed after the user reads associated information. However, this watching method cannot achieve the original purpose of efficiency acquiring information in a limited time.